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Genre:
Comedy/Drama
Director:
Marco Ferreri
Writers:
Rafael Azcona
Marco Ferreri
Ugo Moretti
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Margherita, so sensual and so in love
with the idea of being in love, is definitely from Venus, but on the very
day of her marriage she decides to take a trip to Mars.
She tells her fiancée Gianni (Gastone
Moschin) – a rich and chauvinist entrepreneur –that she fears that with
marriage they would just become each other’s property, and that this would
not only kill their love but their self respect too. Gianni tries to
convince her that becoming a wife and a mother is the only way for a woman
to fulfil herself, but Margherita has serious doubts about it, and calls
the ceremony off.
She’s an independent, professional
woman – an architect – with a great clearness of mind, but she doesn’t
know what she wants when it comes to feelings. Margherita dearly loves
Gianni for his kindness, Gaetano (Renato Salvatori) because he’s open
minded and understanding; and then there’s the adventurous and wild Mike
(Michel Le Royer). She doesn’t dream of an ideal man with all these
attributes: she loves each one of these real men as they are. And doesn’t
want to choose. Why choose?, she asks herself. Why does love have to be a
feeling just between two people, which excludes everybody else? Can’t we
have a relationship with more than one person without cheating on anybody?
Margherita is not sure of anything.
She only has doubts and questions. And she wants to be honest and
respectful with herself and the men she loves. That’s why she decides to
invite the three of them to join her in beautiful Dubrovnik, where she
rented a villa.
In Croatia, far from the influence of
their social environment, they seem to be able to talk and listen: Gaetano
agrees that men have to help women to break out their chains, to follow
their feelings and true aspirations; Gianni doesn’t change his mind, but
is willing to accept he’s not the only man in Margherita’s life; and Mike
keeps following his instincts and seems to respect Margherita’s.
Then, Gaetano’s mother appears on the
scene. She’s appalled by Margherita’s immoral behaviour: in her eyes,
she’s trying to corrupt her son. And in the eyes of the three man the
mother comes to represent what a woman, at the end of the day, is destined
to become: a wife and a mother. So Margherita is bad or, in other words,
she’s nothing else but a bitch – a bitch who’s treating them as sexual
slaves, as her own harem.
From now on, male solidarity becomes
stronger than love and desire, and the slaves rebel against the tyrant, in
a game of power that becomes ruthless.
It’s 1967, the Sexual Revolution is
sweeping the West, even chauvinist and family centered Italy. Marco
Ferreri, a director known for his social commitment, takes a radical
stance on feminist issues. In doing so, he doesn’t build Margherita as a
realistic character but as the personification of everything that seems to
distinguish women from men – psychologically, sexually and culturally. On
the other hand, Ferrari seems to suggest that in a society less biased by
sexual stereotypes, Margherita wouldn’t be seen just as a woman fighting
against male power, but above all as a person with the courage to doubt
what’s taken for granted, and that comes to the conclusion that feelings
are a form of thought.
Ferreri’s
cinema is socially committed in its subjects but surreal in its style – a
very effective contrast: it highlights the subject while it visually
pleases the viewer. And images are so sharp to tear all the veils away,
leaving reality like Margherita towards the end of the movie: stark naked
– and vulnerable.
Reviewed by
Claudia Sandroni,
Premier Movie
Reviews 2007
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